Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Reviewed: The Flower Arrangement by Ella Griffin.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review for the blog tour.

The Flower Arrangement is such a peaceful, relaxing read – the kind of book perfect to curl up with and lose a day to, to smile and laugh and cry at, to fall in love with the wonderful cast of characters. I wanted to wake up and find myself at Blossom & Grow flower shop, to smell all the gorgeous flowers and to chat tirelessly with Lara, watching all my worries disappear. There’s personal, impactful messages all throughout this story and I can’t say there was a second I wasn’t fully enjoying the book.

The structure of The Flower Arrangement was just effortlessly beautiful. Each chapter is of a different flower with a different meaning and relates to the story of a different character who is in some way affected by Lara’s flower shop. Lara puts so much thought and effort into creating the perfect flower arrangement for each of her customers and her character is such a delight to read. She’s such a gem but you can’t help but notice that she needs a bit of a lift herself. She’s grieving in so many different ways for so many different people but her strength was unbelievably inspirational, how able she was at caring for other people and trying to help them when she was suffering so much. There’s a flower for every story and they each have a healing quality in them but more than anything I wanted to see them bring Lara her own, hugely deserved happy ending.

I don’t think I appreciated, before reading this book, how flowers are involved in every emotional aspect of life, at every occasion and for the romantic (or the apologetic), in everyday life. Blossom & Grow is such a welcoming place to be and each visitor is there for a different reason, mostly leaving a little calmer and a little happier thanks to the magic created with each flower arrangement. I loved how the individual stories and characters were woven together and those moments where we meet a new character and I realise the link they have to a story previously told. I can’t express how moving this book was and how much I cared for everyone we met, and they weren’t perfect people who you couldn’t imagine in real life. They were humans who make mistakes, some more than others, who have feelings they might not always like to admit, who would never have expected how grand a job flowers do at expressing feelings and changing lives. Lara is the one person who understands that more than anything and she’s so understanding of the strangers she meets, so non-judgemental. There’s such a spirit to her and I just had that feeling that anybody’s life could be made that little bit better just for knowing her.

The Flower Arrangement is one of the most charming books I have ever read and it brought out so many different emotions in me. Marian Keyes’ quote on the front cover really does sum up Ella Griffin’s style of writing for me – she truly does have you laughing one second and then wiping a tear the next. There’s such warmth in Ella’s tone and she puts across such a resounding love of life and the importance of appreciating everyday life with its highs and lows. Characters develop and change with subtlety as the book progresses, feelings grow and people move on and this novel provides a very refreshing, very real outlook on life but with a touch of everything is going to be ok in the end, even when things don’t turn out as expected. The Flower Arrangement was a very special book which I loved, I’m just not quite sure I was ever ready to see it end…

A delightful, touching read that will have you smiling one moment and holding back tears the next.